With reindeer's fat and strips of cotton shirts we formed candles; and Hepburn acquired considerable skill in the manufacture of soap from the wood-ashes, fat and salt.

The formation of soap was considered as rather a mysterious operation by our Canadians and in their hands was always supposed to fail if a woman approached the kettle in which the ley was boiling.

Such are our simple domestic details.
On the 30th two hunters came from the leader to convey ammunition to him as soon as our men should bring it from Fort Providence.
The men at this time coated the walls of the house on the outside with a thin mixture of clay and water which formed a crust of ice that for some days proved impervious to the air; the dryness of the atmosphere however was such that the ice in a short time evaporated and gave admission to the wind as before.

It is a general custom at the forts to give this sort of coating to the walls at Christmas time.

When it was gone we attempted to remedy its defect by heaping up snow against the walls.
January 1, 1821.
This morning our men assembled and greeted us with the customary salutation on the commencement of the new year.